HP Still Deciding About webOS

New HP CEO, Meg Whitman called a meeting of HP and Palm
employees to tell them the fate of the webOS mobile platform – and then decided
not to.

Back in August, HP shocked the world by killing the TouchPad
and Pre smartphones which ran the software. HP acquired webOS when it purchased Palm in April 2010.

Whitman, who took over from Léo Apotheker in September,
was believed to be ready to reveal the fate of webOS last night, but put the
decision off, reportedly telling the meeting: "It's really important to me
to make the right decision, not the fast decision,"

According to The Verge, she wenton to say: "If HP decides [to keep
webOS], we're going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year
period,” adding that "it's a very expensive proposition, but HP can make
that bet."

HP is currently in turmoil and only ten days ago revealed that
it would be keeping its PC division rather than the initial plan of selling it
off. A decision on webOS is expected in three to four weeks, with the decision
dependant on what direction the company will go with the PC business and what it will do with the newly-acquired Autonomy.

According to the sources at the meeting, Whitman was
speaking about webOS on tablets rather than on smartphones, because
"things get more complicated if you add in phones."

So no firm decision has been made by HP regarding webOS, or
indeed about its PC business and Autonomy, and the next three to fours weeks
could be the most important in the company’s long and distinguished history.